Thinkbox particle plug-in for Max upped to V2, beta version for Maya available

Thinkbox Software has updated Frost MX, its meshing particles and fluid simulations plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max, to version 2.0. Thinkbox has also launched the beta for Frost MY 2.0, the Autodesk Maya version of the plug-in.

The new V-Ray Instancing mode leverages dynamic memory allocation to render millions of high-resolution meshes with low memory overhead. Frost MX 2.0 continues to support all Custom Geometry features in V-Ray Instancing mode, including particle channel propagation, material and shape ID controls, animation timing offsets and motion blur from particle velocity. Coupled with the advanced particle generation and Magma data channel manipulation capabilities offered by Thinkbox’s Krakatoa MX, which is available at no extra cost via the License-Free mode, the V-Ray Instancing feature offers a whole new world of power and flexibility to Frost users.

“The latest version of Frost is a massive leap forward in terms of speed. By stripping away much of the computational burden traditionally associated with data-heavy particle meshes and fluid simulations, we’re enabling artists to work more dynamically and see their work come to life more quickly,” reports Chris Bond, founder of Thinkbox Software.

Additionally, the new Region of Interest option in Frost MX 2.0 lets users easily define a custom bounding box region that can be applied to Viewport meshing for faster previews while adjusting settings of complex particle data sets, to remove unwanted areas in Render-time meshing, or both. A dedicated Frost menu bar has been added to 3ds Max’s main menu for faster access to major features such as creating Frost objects, auto-adding new sources to a Frost object, accessing the Log window, and mass-changing the meshing mode of selected Frost objects.

Frost MX 2.0 is available for 64-bit versions of 3ds Max from 2012 to 2017, and requires an updated license.